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Patent Law

Regulations

Patent regulations, including the rules of practice in patent cases, are located in Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

Proposed and final regulations are first published in the Federal Register and in the notices section of the Official Gazette of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: Patents (latest 52 weeks online).

Federal Register notices related to patent regulations are also online dating back to 1997.

Copies of the patent regulations can also be found in the following sources:

Agency Decisions

When a patent application is submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, it is reviewed by a patent examiner, who determines whether the invention meets the statutory requirements.  Final rejections of patent claims may be appealed to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) (formerly the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences).  The PTAB also conducts "interference proceedings, where it decides priority of inventorship, or who will get a patent when 2 or more inventors are claiming the same invention. 

Decisions of the PTAB can be found in the following sources: